There is no spectacular reason why I chose this Wendingen magazine. I haven’t had the luck to know anyone who owns such furniture or designed their home according to the Amsterdam School. But maybe because I know so little about the Amsterdam School and the Stijl I became curious in it’s influence on present design, art and architecture. Additionally, how do we people living in the 21st century look at the ideologies of the artists like Piet Kramer, Gerrit Rietveld and W. M. Dudok? Also, what do we think of the photographs of interiors that were designed by these designers?

The first thing I thought of when I saw the photographs is that I wouldn’t want my house to consist of only primary colors with the black, white and gray colour combination. I generally find their houses too impersonal and geometrical because of the lack of spontaneity and absurdity.
The Schröder-Rietveld House, however, I find exceedingly playful because of the ability to turn an open space into separate private rooms. Also, the practicality of the house is simple, sincere and has its particular charm.

The main reason why I liked this ‘Wendingen’ magazine was because of the numerous black/white photographs. My focus also drew to the captions underneath the photographs as they tried to describe the colors of the furniture, which you could not see or even guess.

For some years ago I liked to find old , black & white pictures of random rooms. I would use colored pencils to color these, for example, living rooms or dining rooms in. I would attempt to make the color combinations expressive, intense and sometimes clashing so they become livelier.

I like to work with themes such as nostalgia: focus on the beauty as on the absurdity of it. The furniture in the ‘Wendingen’ issue have a touch of nostalgia now, which I do not believe that someone like Rietveld or Kramer would have wanted their designs to turn into. This is simply bound to happen, so the interesting part to it now is what to do with these photos in the Wendingen issue?

There were several photographs of Piet Kramer‘s work in the issue, which I genuinely like, and who is now one of the known key figures of the Amsterdam School. I did a bit of investigation on him to see what else he has made, how his style developed and who he worked with etc. This I considered to share on the blog but I did not desire to simply focus on him but specifically on the work shown in the issue. I wanted to rediscover the style of the Amsterdam School and turn these practical and geometrical methods into something bourgeois and decorative and work against their ideology, without offending them.

A lecture by Linda van Deursen.
A lecture about De Stijl still being relevant in contemporary graphic design

For me the most fascinating part of the lecture was when Linda van Deursen showed that De Stijl is still present within the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. “Everything you do inside or around the school is in dialog with the school”
She talked about the building designed by Gerrit Rietveld himself: a simple glass box put over a concrete structure. She also talked about how he chose grey as the most neutral color for the background of the space we work in. According to Rietveld; “students works will give color to the school”.
For outside the working space he did put some color; the primary colors. The floors yellow blue and red, the toilet doors yellow.
I believe that in the beginning there where no male or female tags on the toilet, just the yellow color. I don’t think he would put something that sexist in this concept.
The floor used to be from a less strong material, making it prohibited to wear heels inside the school. This was changed later, so you could wear heels in school.

She made me look at this subject in a certain way. Rietveld his primary colors are very open to different possibilities: when you mix the colors, you can make any color you want. This made me think of an opposite way we use colors;
the colors in the routes our two different sexes

It starts before we are even born, the moment your sex is discovered.
Blue for boys, pink for girls.
I see these two routes where we split the things in our lives. For the boys we buy their first pluche football, something from the blue route.
And for the girls their first dress, something from the pink route.
The boys are raised playing competitive games with other boys.
The girls are raised picking out a new color for their dresses,
the first steps of these two very narrow routes in this not so open space.

By the time we are four we already get to see the end of the routes.
We see that we eventually all will get married and have children.
After you have learned this you will soon discover that there is absolutely no way for boys and girls to be on the same route. The world is now split up in to separate sides.

There are of course people that are not able to fit in these routes.
They either go to the other side, to be a boyish girl on the blue side or a girly boy on the pink side or they have to figure out a new route. Since you were given only blue and pink you end up mixing and since pink and blue can only make one color you end up with the purple route.

Start with Rietvelds three colors and there won’t be dead ends like that.
If you don’t fit in your yellow, blue of red route you can mix it up in all directions.
This education could be seen as an alternative space where you won’t get stuck. You can get loose of your brought by view and look in a primary colored base way in a space where this is supported by your surroundings.

Linda van Deursen mentioned in her lecture that she could have made this lecture about anything “I was trying to see if there were some links and there are”. For me there was the link between the blue and pink opposite to the red, yellow and blue.
You can write anything about this and maybe that is what it is about in the greater picture: you apply this institute on yourself.

Since I have chosen books in which the yellow color has been part of the content in different contexts, I took a book by Wassily Kandinsky for the last posting. The book describes a Color Theory according to Wassily Kandinsky, “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”. Here is his theory of the color yellow and the color that he thinks is the most opposite of yellow (blue).

Yellow means “warm,” “cheeky and exciting,” “disturbing for people,” “typical earthly color,” “compared with the mood of a person it could have the effect of representing madness in color […] an attack of rage, blind madness, maniacal rage.

Blue means “deep, inner, supernatural, peaceful “Sinking towards black, it has the overtone of a mourning that is not human.” “typical heavenly color”

Once I entered the library I walked the same isle but turn my back into the one I had been looking at for the last 2 postings. Now, I had in front of me a cabinet full of names. Van Gogh, Warhol… among many others. So, how can I relate a name with another name?

– I found no solution immediately –

I remember having once a conversation about how names, days of the week, words, etc, can give a feeling of color to certain individuals. The whole theory also applies in a more scientific way when it comes to sound waves in music. I wonder if you have ever seen a colorful symphony…

Immediately I decided to think about Anita . I was sure there must be something that catches my attention, something special. It always seems to work that way when it comes to Anita .

So I searched, my eyes went up and down, side to side quickly through the archive. On the right hand corner a thin small booklet with what it seems like a paper cover sticks out from all the grey thick names. It was not only catching my attention due to its bright colors but also due to the physical position of the booklet; It was sticking half way out as if someone had started the job for me.

Once I took out the six page booklet and opened it I found inside several painted portraits of women. To tell you the truth, I was not surprised, like I said before, there is something special with this Anita . I then shifted my focus on portraits, leaving the first two posts behind, and moved again to my focus on the color of the cover.

Almost like a kids riddle I identify “orange on the outside, yellow on the inside… Can you guess what it is?” Interesting how these two colors remind me of Anita for some reason. At least reminds me of a certain aspect of the name.

Once at home I research on the meaning of colors:

-Yellow is the color of sunshine. It’s associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy.

-Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation.

It is not only Anita’s intellect, energy, creativity, attraction, success, but Maria’s combined fascination, determination, encouragement, and stimulation towards this assignment which gave color to what it is now for me a symbol.

-To my surprise, once I rented out the book, it was not identified by the computer. Hence, it has no reference number, just a reference color.

Thinking of women artists and graphic design leads me to the work of Barbara Kruger. It connects design, feminism, art and references also to my personal story, namely of seeing an exhibition of her work and loving it.

The work of Barbara Kruger can be qualified both as conceptual art and graphic design. She combines black and white photographs with phrases set in vivid colors, juxtaposing imagery and text. Her work addresses the complex interconnection of gender and the marketplace, and criticizes sexism and the circulation of powers within cultures.

I find her work interesting because it is interdisciplinary. She is not bothered by formal qualifications (is it design, is it art, is it politics?), but instead says that she likes to work with words and images. She wants to address her audience directly, and chooses the medium which she finds fitting. This ‘no fuss’ attitude in combination with the content of her work is inspiring.

‘Being reassured that whatever kind of art you make it will be labeled feminine.’

‘Being included in revised versions of art history.’ (Guerilla Girls)

After listening to a presentation on feminist art I contemplate these statements. I find them funny, but they also make me uncomfortable. What is a woman artist? Are there specific issues she should address?

Later, in the library, I know I have to find a book on design, but first I wander around to find a book that addresses the subject on my mind. Intuitively, I pick up a pink book with feminist essays on art. Later, I return to my initial task and pick up a book on color theory. That book, now lying in front of me on the table, doesn’t speak to me at all. If this is a subjective library, I should just read about feminism instead.

Searching without an objective search criterion in a library seems to contradict the way a library is organized. However, after deciding that it is exactly this intellectual approach that I need to abandon, I decide to approach the books basing my choice on feelings and preferences alone.

1. I like graphic art

2. I like vivid colors

I notice a book that is a faded neon pink. I recognize it, because I have it at home, twice. Living with my boyfriend has caused some books to be connected with a twin, and our copies of ‘Een teken aan de wand’ are standing next to each other on the shelf, looking beautiful.

Should I choose this book? Isn’t it too obvious, seeing that I know it, have read it, used it in projects and above all, that it concerns some of my favorite topics: feminism and human rights? Yes I should, neon pink looks even better times three.

Read the reflections of A and C group’s journey into the Rietveld Library’s Design and Art section. This journey to investigate, made our fascinations, preconceptions and hidden desires manifest. How does a subjective book choice create a personal mirror and leaves traces of tags, connecting Design to Art, exposing autonomy in both.

Read about the subjective, open and intiutive first book choice from the Design section of our library. Wonder about the tags connected to those accounts. Follow the continuing story as a second book is selected based on those tags created. Witness the third posting in which those sets of tags lead us from Design to Art. A move that forces us to reflect upon the connection between them both.

Follow the continuing accounts of the three succeeding investigating postings by clicking on the yellow link. Experience the total list of tags created during this “Subjective Library” Project.